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MarkApplebaum_2012X-_疯狂音乐科学家_
I thought if I skipped it might help my nerves , but I'm actually having a paradoxical reaction to that, so that was a bad idea. (Laughter) [00:15]
nerves:n.神经;神经紧张;勇气;v.鼓足勇气;振作精神;(nerve的第三人称单数和复数) paradoxical:adj.矛盾的;诡论的;似非而是的; reaction:n.反应,感应;反动,复古;反作用;
Anyway, I was really delighted to receive the invitation to present to you some of my music and some of my work as a composer , presumably because it appeals [00:23]
delighted:adj.高兴的; v.使高兴; (delight的过去分词和过去式) invitation:n.邀请,引诱 composer:n.作曲家;作家,著作者;设计者; presumably:adv.大概;推测起来;可假定; appeals:n.[法]上诉; v.有吸引力(appeal的单三形式);
to my well-known and abundant narcissism . (Laughter) [00:33]
well-known:adj.著名的;众所周知的;清楚明白的; abundant:adj.丰富的;充裕的;盛产; narcissism:n.[心理]自恋,自我陶醉;
And I'm not kidding, I just think we should just say that and move forward. (Laughter) [00:37]
So, but the thing is, a dilemma quickly arose , and that is that I'm really bored with music, and I'm really bored with the role of the composer, and so I decided to put that idea, boredom , as the focus of my presentation to you today. [00:43]
dilemma:n.困境;进退两难;两刀论法; arose:vi.出现(arise的过去式);引发; boredom:n.厌倦;令人厌烦的事物; presentation:n.展示;描述,陈述;介绍;赠送;
And I'm going to share my music with you, but I hope that I'm going to do so in a way that tells a story, tells a story about how I used boredom as a catalyst for creativity and invention, and how boredom [00:58]
catalyst:n.[物化]催化剂;刺激因素;
actually forced me to change the fundamental question that I was asking in my discipline , and how boredom also, in a sense , pushed me towards taking on roles beyond the sort of most traditional , narrow definition of a composer. [01:08]
fundamental:n.基础; adj.十分重大的; discipline:n.纪律;训练;自制力;风纪;v.训练;管教;惩罚;处罚; in a sense:在某种意义上; traditional:传统的,惯例的, narrow:adj.狭窄的; v.使窄小; n.峡谷; (场所,物品等的)狭窄部分; definition:n.定义;清晰度;(尤指词典里的词或短语的)释义;解释;
What I'd like to do today is to start with an excerpt of a piece of music at the piano. [01:23]
excerpt:n.摘录,引用;vt.引用,摘录;vi.摘录,引用;
(Music) [01:28]
Okay, I wrote that. (Laughter) [01:37]
No, it's not — (Applause) Oh, why thank you. [01:40]
No, no, I didn't write that. [01:42]
In fact, that was a piece by Beethoven , and so I was not functioning as a composer. [01:44]
Beethoven:n.贝多芬(德国作曲家);
Just now I was functioning in the role of the interpreter , and there I am, interpreter. [01:49]
interpreter:n.解释者;口译者;注释器;
So, an interpreter of what? Of a piece of music, right? [01:54]
But we can ask the question, "But is it music?" [01:57]
And I say this rhetorically, because of course by just about any standard we would have to concede that this is, of course, a piece of music, but I put this here now because, just to set it in your brains for the moment, because we're going to return to this question. [02:01]
standard:n.标准;水准;旗;度量衡标准;adj.标准的;合规格的;公认为优秀的; concede:v.承认;退让;给予,容许;
It's going to be a kind of a refrain as we go through the presentation. [02:14]
refrain:vi.节制,克制;避免;制止;n.叠句,副歌;重复;
So here we have this piece of music by Beethoven, and my problem with it is, it's boring . [02:17]
boring:adj.无聊的;令人厌烦的;n.钻孔;v.使厌烦;钻孔;(bore的现在分词)
I mean, you — I'm just like, a hush , huh -- It's like -- (Laughter) [02:23]
hush:v.安静;别说话;别叫喊;使安静下来;n.寂静;鸦雀无声;
It's Beethoven, how can you say that? [02:30]
No, well, I don't know, it's very familiar to me. [02:31]
familiar:adj.熟悉的;常见的;亲近的;n.常客;密友;
I had to practice it as a kid, and I'm really sick of it. So -- (Laughter) [02:33]
I would, so what I might like to try to do is to change it, to transform it in some ways, to personalize it, so I might take the opening, like this idea -- [02:36]
transform:v.使改变;使改观;使转换;n.[数]变换式;[化]反式; personalize:v.在…上标明主人姓名;为个人特制(或专设);个人化;
(Music) [02:44]
and then I might substitute -- (Music) [02:46]
substitute:v.取代;(以…)代替;n.代用品;代替物;代替者;替补(运动员);
and then I might improvise on that melody that goes forward from there -- (Music) [02:51]
improvise:v.即兴创作;临时拼凑;临时做; melody:n.旋律;歌曲;美妙的音乐;
(Music) [02:56]
So that might be the kind of thing -- Why thank you. [03:22]
(Applause) [03:25]
That would be the kind of thing that I would do, and it's not necessarily better than the Beethoven. [03:29]
necessarily:adv.必要地;必定地,必然地;
In fact, I think it's not better than it. The thing is -- (Laughter) -- it's more interesting to me. It's less boring for me. [03:33]
I'm really leaning into me, because I, because I have to think about what decisions I'm going to make on the fly as that Beethoven text is running in time through my head [03:42]
leaning:n.倾向;偏向;爱好;v.前俯(或后仰);倾斜;倚靠;(lean的现在分词) on the fly:n.邻近备用设备;即时烧录;真时;
and I'm trying to figure out what kinds of transformations [03:52]
transformations:n.[晶体]转变(transformation的复数形式);转换;
I'm going to make to it. [03:54]
So this is an engaging enterprise for me, and [03:56]
engaging:adj.有趣的; v.吸引住(注意力、兴趣); (engage的现在分词)
I've really leaned into that first person pronoun thing there, and now my face appears twice, so I think we can agree that this is a fundamentally solipsistic enterprise. (Laughter) [03:59]
leaned:v.前俯后仰;倾斜;倚靠;使斜靠;(lean的过去分词和过去式) pronoun:n.代词(代替名词或名词词组的单词); fundamentally:adv.从根本上;基础地;重要地 solipsistic:adj.唯我论的;
But it's an engaging one, and it's interesting to me for a while , but then I get bored with it, and by it, [04:09]
for a while:adv.片刻;暂时;一会儿;一时;
I actually mean, the piano, because it becomes, it's this familiar instrument , it's timbral range is actually pretty compressed , at least when you play on the keyboard, [04:14]
instrument:n.仪器;工具;乐器;手段;器械; compressed:adj.(空气或气体)压缩的; v.(被)压紧; (compress的过去式和过去分词)
and if you're not doing things like listening to it after you've lit it on fire or something like that, you know. [04:23]
It gets a little bit boring, and so pretty soon [04:28]
I go through other instruments , they become familiar, and eventually I find myself designing and constructing my own instrument, and I brought one with me today, [04:30]
instruments:n.器械;仪器;器具;手段(instrument的复数) eventually:adv.最后,终于; constructing:n.构造;v.构造(construct的现在分词);
and I thought I would play a little bit on it for you so you can hear what it sounds like. [04:39]
(Music) [04:44]
You gotta have doorstops, that's important. (Laughter) [04:55]
I've got combs . They're the only combs that I own. (Music) [05:01]
combs:n.梳子(comb的复数);v.梳头发;梳毛(comb的第三人称单数);
They're all mounted on my instruments. (Laughter) [05:04]
mounted:adj.骑马的; v.准备; (mount的过去分词和过去式)
(Music) [05:07]
I can actually do all sorts of things. I can play with a violin bow. I don't have to use the chopsticks. [05:16]
So we have this sound. (Music) [05:22]
And with a bank of live electronics , [05:29]
electronics:n.电子学;电子工业;
I can change the sounds radically . (Music) [05:31]
radically:adv.根本上;彻底地;以激进的方式;
(Music) [05:36]
Like that, and like this. (Music) [05:45]
And so forth. [05:51]
So this gives you a little bit of an idea of the sound world of this instrument, which I think is quite interesting and it puts me in the role of the inventor, and the nice thing about — [05:53]
This instrument is called the Mouseketeer ... (Laughter) [06:02]
and the cool thing about it is [06:05]
I'm the world's greatest Mouseketeer player. (Laughter) [06:07]
Okay? (Applause) [06:11]
So in that regard, this is one of the things, this is one of the privileges of being, and here's another role, the inventor, and by the way , when I told you that I'm the world's greatest, [06:12]
privileges:n.[计]特权(privilege的复数); v.给与…特权(privilege的第三人称单数形式); by the way:顺便说一下;
if you're keeping score, we've had narcissism and solipsism and now a healthy dose of egocentricism. [06:22]
dose:n.剂量;一剂,一服;v.服药;给药;给…服药;
I know some of you are just, you know, bingo ! Or, I don't know. (Laughter) [06:28]
bingo:int.答对了;n.宾戈游戏;
Anyway, so this is also a really enjoyable role. [06:32]
enjoyable:adj.快乐的;令人愉快的;
I should concede also that I'm the world's worst Mouseketeer player, and it was this distinction that I was most worried about when I was on that prior side of the tenure divide. [06:38]
distinction:n.区别;区分;差别;卓越; prior:adj.先前的; n.(小隐修院)院长; v.居先; tenure:n.任期;占有;vt.授予…终身职位;
I'm glad I'm past that. We're not going to go into that. [06:45]
I'm crying on the inside. There are still scars. [06:48]
Anyway, but I guess my point is that all of these enterprises are engaging to me in their multiplicity , but as I've presented them to you today, they're actually solitary enterprises, [06:51]
multiplicity:n.多样性;[物]多重性; solitary:adj.孤独的;独居的;n.独居者;隐士;
and so pretty soon I want to commune with other people, and so [07:02]
commune:vi.谈心,亲密交谈;密切联系;n.公社;
I'm delighted that in fact I get to compose works for them. [07:05]
I get to write, sometimes for soloists and I get to work with one person, sometimes full orchestras , and I work with a lot of people, and this is probably the capacity , the role creatively for which I'm probably best known professionally . [07:07]
soloists:n.独奏者;独唱者; orchestras:n.管弦乐队;乐队演奏处; capacity:n.能力;容量;资格,地位;生产力; creatively:adv.创造性地;有创造力地; professionally:adv.专业地;内行地;
Now, some of my scores as a composer look like this, and others look like this, and some look like this, and I make all of these by hand, and it's really tedious . [07:21]
tedious:adj.沉闷的;冗长乏味的;
It takes a long, long time to make these scores, and right now I'm working on a piece that's 180 pages in length, and it's just a big chunk of my life, and I'm just pulling out hair. [07:31]
chunk:n.大块;矮胖的人或物;
I have a lot of it, and that's a good thing I suppose . (Laughter) [07:41]
suppose:v.推断:假定:假设:设想:
So this gets really boring and really tiresome for me, so after a while the process of notating is not only boring, but I actually want the notation to be more interesting, and so that's pushed me to do other projects like this one. [07:44]
tiresome:adj.烦人的,无聊的;令人讨厌的; process:v.处理;加工;列队行进;n.过程,进行;方法,adj.经过特殊加工(或处理)的; notation:n.符号;乐谱;注释;记号法;
This is an excerpt from a score called "The Metaphysics of Notation." [07:56]
Metaphysics:n.玄学,形而上学;
The full score is 72 feet wide. [08:01]
It's a bunch of crazy pictographic notation. [08:03]
a bunch of:一群;一束;一堆; pictographic:adj.象形文字的,绘画文字的;
Let's zoom in on one section of it right here. You can see it's rather detailed. I do all of this with drafting templates , with straight edges, with French curves , and by freehand , and the 72 feet was actually split into 12 six-foot-wide panels that were installed [08:06]
drafting:n.起草;制图;v.起草;草拟;选派;抽调;(draft的现在分词) templates:n.模板;范本(template的复数);属性单元; curves:n.曲线; v.(使)沿曲线运动; (curve的第三人称单数和复数) freehand:adj.徒手画的;不用仪器画的;adv.徒手画地; split:v.分离;使分离;劈开;离开;分解;n.劈开;裂缝;adj.劈开的; panels:n.面板(panel的复数); v.嵌镶(panel的第三人称单数形式); installed:v.安装;设置;使就职(install的过去分词和过去式)
around the Cantor Arts Center Museum lobby balcony , and it appeared for one year in the museum, and during that year, it was experienced as visual art most of the week, except, as you can see in these pictures, [08:22]
Cantor:n.合唱指挥家;独唱者; lobby:n.大堂;门厅;民众接待厅;游说;v.游说(从政者或政府); balcony:n.阳台;包厢;戏院楼厅; visual:adj.视觉的,视力的;栩栩如生的; as you can see:正如你所看到的;你是知道的;
on Fridays, from noon til one, and only during that time, various performers came and interpreted these strange and undefined pictographic glyphs . (Laughter) [08:36]
interpreted:v.诠释;说明;把…理解为;领会;口译;(interpret的过去式和过去分词) undefined:adj.不明确的;未下定义的; glyphs:n.字形;雕文;占星学上所用的速记符号(glyph的复数);
Now this was a really exciting experience for me. [08:45]
It was gratifying musically , but I think the more important thing is it was exciting because I got to take on another role, especially given that it appeared in a museum, and that is as visual artist. (Laughter) [08:49]
gratifying:adj.令人高兴的;使人满意的;v.使高兴;使满意;满足;(gratify的现在分词) musically:adv.音乐上地;声音好听地; especially:adv.尤其;特别;格外;十分;
We're going to fill up the whole thing, don't worry. (Laughter) [08:59]
I am multitudes . (Laughter) [09:02]
multitudes:n.众多;大量;群众;民众;人群;(multitude的复数)
So one of the things is that, I mean, some people would say, like, "Oh, you're being a dilettante ," [09:04]
dilettante:n.业余爱好者; adj.浅薄的; vi.(在艺术,科学等方面)浅尝辄止;
and maybe that's true. I can understand how, I mean, because I don't have a pedigree in visual art and I don't have any training, but it's just something [09:09]
pedigree:n.血统;家谱;adj.纯种的;
that I wanted to do as an extension of my composition , as an extension of a kind of creative impulse . [09:15]
extension:n.延长;延期;扩大;伸展;电话分机; composition:n.成分;作文;构成;创作; impulse:n.冲动;[电子]脉冲;刺激;神经冲动;推动力;v.推动;
I can understand the question, though. "But is it music?" [09:21]
I mean, there's not any traditional notation. [09:24]
I can also understand that sort of implicit criticism in this piece, "S-tog," which I made when I was living in Copenhagen . [09:26]
implicit:adj.含蓄的;暗示的;盲从的; criticism:n.批评;批判;评论;指责; Copenhagen:n.哥本哈根(丹麦首都);
I took the Copenhagen subway map and [09:32]
I renamed all the stations to abstract musical provocations , and the players, who are synchronized with stopwatches , follow the timetables , which are listed in minutes past the hour. [09:34]
renamed:v.重新命名;给…改名;(rename的过去分词和过去式) abstract:n.摘要; adj.抽象的; vt.摘要; vi.做摘要; provocations:n.挑衅;激怒;挑拨; synchronized:adj.同步的;同步化的;v.使协调(synchronize的过去分词);同时发生;校准; stopwatches:n.码表;跑表;vt.用秒表测定时间; timetables:n.时间表;时刻表;课程表;
So this is a case of actually adapting something, or maybe stealing something, and then turning it into a musical notation. [09:42]
adapting:v.使适应,使适合;适应;改编;改写;(adapt的现在分词)
Another adaptation would be this piece. [09:50]
adaptation:n.适应;改编;改编本,改写本;
I took the idea of the wristwatch , and I turned it into a musical score. [09:52]
wristwatch:n.手表;
I made my own faces, and had a company fabricate them, and the players follow these scores. [09:55]
fabricate:vt.制造;伪造;装配;
They follow the second hands, and as they pass over the various symbols , the players respond musically. [10:01]
symbols:n.符号;象征;标志;符号表(symbol的复数); respond:vi.回答;作出反应;承担责任;n.应答;唱和;
Here's another example from another piece, and then its realization . [10:06]
realization:n.实现;领悟;
So in these two capacities , I've been scavenger , in the sense of taking, like, the subway map, right, or thief maybe, and I've also been designer, in the case of making the wristwatches . [10:10]
capacities:n.能力;容量;性能;生产量(capacity的复数); scavenger:n.食腐动物;清道夫;[助剂]清除剂;拾荒者; wristwatches:n.手表;
And once again, this is, for me, interesting. [10:20]
Another role that I like to take on is that of the performance artist. [10:23]
performance:n.性能;表现;业绩;表演;
Some of my pieces have these kind of weird theatric elements , and I often perform them. I want to show you a clip from a piece called "Echolalia." [10:27]
weird:adj.奇怪的;奇异的;离奇的;n.命运;宿命;命运女神; elements:n.要素;基本部分;少量;一群;(element的复数) clip:v.剪辑;修剪;削减;固定;n.夹;夹子;速度;钳;
This is actually being performed by Brian McWhorter, who is an extraordinary performer. [10:33]
performed:v.表演;执行;履行;演出;工作,运转(好/不好)(perform的过去分词和过去式) extraordinary:adj.非凡的;特别的;离奇的;临时的;特派的;
Let's watch a little bit of this, and please notice the instrumentation . [10:38]
instrumentation:n.使用仪器;乐器法;仪表化;
(Music) [10:41]
Okay, I hear you were laughing nervously because you too could hear that the drill was a little bit sharp , the intonation was a little questionable . (Laughter) [11:10]
nervously:adv.神经质地;焦急地;提心吊胆地; sharp:锋利的,尖的 intonation:声调,语调 questionable:adj.可疑的;有问题的;
Let's watch just another clip. [11:16]
(Music) [11:18]
You can see the mayhem continues, and there's, you know, there were no clarinets and trumpets and flutes and violins. Here's a piece that has an even more unusual, more peculiar instrumentation. [11:29]
mayhem:n.故意的伤害罪;重伤罪;蓄意的破坏; clarinets:n.单簧管;竖笛,黑管; trumpets:n.喇叭; v.吹喇叭; flutes:n.长笛(flute复数);v.压制褶子于…;用长笛吹奏(flute的第三人称单数); peculiar:adj.特殊的;独特的;奇怪的;罕见的;n.特权;特有财产;
This is "Tl?n," for three conductors and no players. (Laughter) [11:38]
conductors:n.[电]导体;指挥(conductor的复数);[交]售票员;
This was based on the experience of actually watching two people having a virulent argument in sign language , which produced no decibels to speak of, but affectively , psychologically , was a very loud experience. [11:54]
virulent:adj.剧毒的;恶性的;有恶意的; sign language:n.手势语; decibels:n.[声]分贝(声音强度单位,decibel的复数); affectively:adv.情感地; psychologically:adv.心理上地;心理学地;
So, yeah, I get it, with, like, the weird appliances and then the total absence of conventional instruments and this glut of conductors, people might, you know, wonder, yeah, "Is this music?" [12:04]
appliances:n.(家用)电器,器具;(appliance的复数) absence:n.没有;缺乏;缺席;不注意; conventional:adj.符合习俗的,传统的;常见的;惯例的; glut:vt.使…充满;使…吃饱;过多供应;vi.吃得过多;n.(商品)供过于求;大量;
But let's move on to a piece where clearly I'm behaving myself, and that is my " Concerto for Orchestra." [12:17]
behaving:v.表现:表现得体:有礼貌:(behave的现在分词) Concerto:n.协奏曲;
You're going to notice a lot of conventional instruments in this clip. (Music) [12:24]
(Music) [12:29]
This, in fact, is not the title of this piece. [12:42]
I was a bit mischievous . In fact, to make it more interesting, [12:44]
mischievous:adj.淘气的;(人,行为等)恶作剧的;有害的;
I put a space right in here, and this is the actual title of the piece. [12:47]
Let's continue with that same excerpt. [12:51]
(Music) [12:53]
It's better with a florist , right? (Laughter) (Music) [13:03]
florist:n.花商,种花人;花卉研究者;
Or at least it's less boring. Let's watch a couple more clips . [13:11]
clips:n.夹子; v.夹住;
(Music) [13:14]
So with all these theatric elements, this pushes me in another role, and that would be, possibly, the dramaturge . [13:28]
dramaturge:n.剧作家(等于dramatist,dramaturgist);剧团的文艺顾问(等于dramaturg);
I was playing nice. I had to write the orchestra bits, right? [13:33]
Okay? But then there was this other stuff , right? [13:38]
stuff:n.东西:物品:基本特征:v.填满:装满:标本:
There was the florist, and I can understand that, once again, we're putting pressure on the ontology of music as we know it conventionally , but let's look at one last piece today I'm going to share with you. [13:40]
ontology:n.本体论;存在论;实体论; conventionally:adv.照惯例,照常套;
This is going to be a piece called " Aphasia ," [13:53]
Aphasia:n.失语症(形容词aphasic);
and it's for hand gestures synchronized to sound, and this invites yet another role, and final one [13:55]
gestures:n.手势; v.做手势; (gesture的第三人称单数和复数)
I'll share with you, which is that of the choreographer . [14:01]
choreographer:n.编舞者,舞蹈指导;
And the score for the piece looks like this, and it instructs me, the performer, to make various hand gestures at very specific times synchronized with an audio tape , and that audio tape is made up exclusively of vocal samples. [14:04]
specific:adj.特殊的,特定的;明确的;详细的;[药]具有特效的;n.特性;细节;特效药; audio tape:n.录音带;
I recorded an awesome singer, and I took the sound of his voice in my computer, and I warped it in countless ways to come up with the soundtrack that you're about to hear. [14:19]
awesome:adj.令人敬畏的;使人畏惧的;可怕的;极好的; warped:adj.弯曲的;反常的;v.弄歪(warp的过去式和过去分词); countless:adj.无数的;数不尽的; come up with:提出;想出;赶上; soundtrack:n.声带;声道;声迹;电影配音;
And I'll perform just an excerpt of "Aphasia" for you here. Okay? [14:28]
(Music) [14:33]
So that gives you a little taste of that piece. (Applause) [15:12]
Yeah, okay, that's kind of weird stuff. [15:18]
Is it music? Here's how I want to conclude . [15:21]
conclude:v.断定:得出结论:终止:达成:缔结(协定)
I've decided, ultimately , that this is the wrong question, that this is not the important question. [15:23]
ultimately:adv.最终;最后;归根结底;终究;
The important question is, "Is it interesting?" [15:27]
And I follow this question, not worrying about "Is it music?" -- not worrying about the definition of the thing that I'm making. [15:30]
I allow my creativity to push me in directions that are simply interesting to me, and I don't worry about the likeness of the result to some notion , some paradigm , of what music composition is supposed to be, and that has actually urged me, in a sense, to take on a whole bunch of different roles, and so what I want you to think about is, [15:35]
likeness:n.相似,相像;样子,肖像;照片,画像;相似物; notion:n.观念;信念;理解; paradigm:n.范例;词形变化表; supposed:adj.误信的;所谓的;v.认为;假设;设想;(suppose的过去分词和过去式)
to what extent might you change the fundamental question in your discipline, and, okay, [15:55]
extent:n.程度;范围;长度;
I'm going to put one extra little footnote in here, because, like, I realized I mentioned some psychological defects earlier, and we also, along the way, had a fair amount of obsessive behavior, [16:00]
footnote:n.脚注;补充说明;vt.给…作脚注;在脚注里评议; defects:n.缺点;瑕疵;不合格品(defect的复数);v.叛变(defect的三单形式); obsessive:adj.强迫性的;着迷的;分神的;
and there was some delusional behavior and things like that, and here I think we could say that this is an argument for self-loathing and a kind of schizophrenia , at least in the popular use of the term, [16:11]
delusional:adj.妄想的; self-loathing:n.自我讨厌的;自我憎恨的; schizophrenia:n.[内科]精神分裂症;
and I really mean dissociative identity disorder , okay. (Laughter) [16:20]
dissociative:adj.游离的;分离的; identity:n.身份;同一性,一致;特性;恒等式; disorder:n.混乱;骚乱;vt.使失调;扰乱;
Anyway, despite those perils , I would urge you to think about the possibility that you might take on roles in your own work, whether they are neighboring or far-flung from your professional definition. [16:22]
despite:prep.尽管,不管;n.轻视;憎恨;侮辱; perils:n.事故;风险(peril的复数);v.冒险;置…于危险中(peril的第三人称单数); neighboring:adj.邻近的;接壤的;v.邻近;使接近;位于…附近;(neighbor的现在分词) far-flung:adj.遥远的;广泛的;广布的;
And with that, I thank you very much. (Applause) [16:33]
(Applause) [16:34]